They need to have best practices which they consistently follow . There are a lot of hurdles to get over , a major one being lack of sales management because , in today ’ s world , less and less time is spent on the individual . So that ’ s from the perspective of a salesperson .
From a CEO perspective , high turnover is due to a variety of reasons . It could be that companies don ’ t onboard people properly . They spend a lot of time recruiting , but not a lot of time onboarding and there is a lack of formalized skill development .
A CEO has to ask , whenever we hire new employees , do we actually have a clear path to make them better , every time ? I know the answer for most companies is “ No .” Most turnovers happen after the full first sales cycle . About a year into the business , people find themselves confused and not doing as well as they thought and – suddenly – there ’ s turnover .
Another factor is that sales management doesn ’ t have a coaching plan in place for individual salespeople . As a sales manager , if you don ’ t have the time or a plan in place to help your people get from A to B with the skills necessary for them to be successful , then you ’ re set up for failure .
Unfortunately , no one really tracks the cost of turnover . I meet with companies and ask two questions to which I never get a good answer : How long does it take from the time that you hire somebody to the time that they ’ re profitable in your company ? Most people don ’ t know that answer and if you don ’ t know the answer , you can ’ t make it better . Second , what ’ s the cost every time somebody leaves your company ? They don ’ t track it . They may be tracking other things that are perhaps less important , but the cost of turnover is very expensive , both from a brand standpoint and an economic standpoint . It ’ s a critical statistic that few take into account .
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5 Strictly Marketing Magazine September / October 2014
SMM : What are some strategies that companies can implement to prevent that turnover ?
DM : Well , one of them is a more realistic interview process . What I mean by that is , a lot of companies are selling the blue sky - they want you so badly that they oversell what ’ s necessary to be successful . I have yet to hear somebody say , “ Look , here ’ s what it ’ s going to look like in the first 6 months . You ’ re going to have to build a book of business , you ’ re going to have to do this , etc .” Most sales managers or recruiters are saying , “ It ’ s wonderful here , it ’ s awesome ,” instead of “ I sell a dream because I need a body in the position . But I probably haven ’ t accurately painted a picture of the things that it takes to be successful , the things that you really have to do every single day to thrive .” And those are two very different things . When you are up front and lay out for people exactly what they will need to do in order to be successful , then there will be less surprises at review time and you will have less turnover .
As an example , I have 4 % turnover in an allcommission-based job . Think about that – it ’ s incredibly low . That ’ s because the salesperson knows going into it what it takes to succeed and what it is going to take to fail . We spend a lot of time on that versus selling the dream . The on-boarding process that I talked about is important and what I laid out is really simplified . But it ’ s one of the things that somebody should know in the first six months in order to be one hundred percent successful at their job . The second : give them an example , and give them a script .
You should also have behavioral plans for new hires . Right from the start , a new hire should know what they are supposed to be doing every single day , every week , every month , in order to succeed . Because if they don ’ t , they will fill their day doing things that they think are productive , but won ’ t really help them become successful . It ’ s very important for them to have a recipe - a formula for success .